Some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun West Senatorial district have called on the National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu and Governor Dapo Abiodun to intervene and halt the “illegality being perpetrated” on the senate ticket for the zone.
They said intervention has become imperative following an endorsement, by some party leaders, of the Lagos West Senator, Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi) as an APC candidate in Ogun West Senate.
They insisted that they would not allow the Senate ticket to be ceded to Adeola who they described as a “foreigner.”
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The party elders including the former Minister of Education (State), Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, spoke in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government Area of the state, during the meeting of Ogun West stakeholders.
The meeting tagged, “Preserving The Integrity of Ogun West Senatorial District,” attracted former Commissioners, Local Government Chairmen and members of the State House of Assembly, from the region.
Adeola who just relocated to the state to contest for the Ogun West seat has been having a running battle with some APC leaders of the region otherwise known as Yewa/Awori who questioned the morality and legality of his ambition having played his politics for nearly 20 years in Lagos State.
They also insisted that the accountant turned politician “is not an indigene of the state.”
Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting, the APC leaders in their separate remarks described Adeola’s ambition as ‘an aberration and illegal.’
They also ruled out the alleged endorsement of Senator Adeola as the flagbearer of APC by some leaders of Ogun West, insisting that such a position didn’t represent the collective interest of the region.
Anisulowo said “The take-home from this meeting is that we are not accepting a stranger to come and take our resources and our inheritance in this place.
“I’m not questioning his coming, wanting to live here, but I’m questioning his politics and that he wants to come and take what belongs to us.”
Also speaking, an 84-year-old APC Chieftain, Mrs Mary Ogunjobi said, “What we are doing today is to counter the endorsement of a foreigner, by trying to destroy Ogun West. Our property (referring to the Senate seat) is not for sale. Anybody that sells our property will suffer for it.”
The duo of Anisulowo and Ogunjobi challenged the youths to speak up against the plan to cede the Ogun West senatorial seat to the “stranger.”
The former Chairman of Yewa South Local Government, Hon Jimoh Akinlade, called on the leadership of the party to address the concern before it “leads to an embarrassment for the party.”
In a communiqué issued after the meeting, the elders resolved that leaders and party stakeholders in the region have neither endorsed nor ceded the APC senatorial ticket to Senator Adeola.
“We condemn in totality, the attempt by the serving Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District, Olamilekan Solomon Adeola, known as ‘YAYI’, to jump ship and seek the mandate of Ogun West Senatorial district while still holding on to the one he currently occupies; blatant illegality of the most despicable order.
“We, therefore, use this medium to reinforce the indisputable fact that the genuine Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders of Ogun West APC are not in support of the illegal move, and neither have we endorsed anyone for the Senate seat of our senatorial district, talk more of Senator Olamilekan Adeola – who by clear provisions of the constitution and the electoral act is not qualified to contest elections in Ogun State; and anyone or group that who has done so is speaking for themselves and not for Ogun West.
“Finally, we call on the National Working Committee (NWC) of our party, under the leadership of Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Prince Dapo Abiodun to intervene and halt the illegality being perpetrated in Ogun State.
“We like to also urge them to use their good offices to implement the admonition of the leader of our party, President Muhammadu Buhari, who said that the processes of the party and the tickets of offices must not be allocated to moneybags and the highest bidder.”
In a swift reaction, Adeola’s Media Aide, Kayode Odunaro, said, “The people who said Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola is a foreigner are people who don’t want democracy to thrive. They are people who want to play politics of exclusion.
“Why are they afraid? Yayi is more of a homeboy than all of them. We are in a democracy, there is no law that says Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola cannot contest.
“They can go to court. They are very undemocratic. Yayi is a son of the land.”
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